Raipur gets set to shine under the sun
Raipur, the capital of Chhattisgarh, is being developed as a ‘Smart City’ that will be fully run on solar power soon. It will be a model for every other city in India,” Siddharth Komal Singh Pardeshi, special secretary of energy, Chhattisgarh government, declared on Thursday. Chhattisgarh is one of the youngest states of India, born only in year 2003. But it has already made economic progress by leaps and bounds, overcoming obstacles created by Naxal violence and underdevelopment in its tribal pockets.
Notably, the Chhattisgarh REDA has invested Rs 400 crore during last 11 years in developing infrastructure for solar power generation which had resulted in 40 MW of electricity being generated from non conventional energy sources.
It commissioned grid connected solar projects with cumulative capacity of 128.91 MW as on October 31, 2017. It is also among 15 states in India which has come out with a ‘solar policy’ under Chief Minister, Raman Singh.
“We are the only state producing 20,000 MW of surplus electricity and sharing it with neighbouring States. We are also ensuring that rural Chhattisgarh gets uninterrupted and quality electricity supply. It is the vision of our CM, Raman Singh, that Chhattisgarh should be the leader in solar power production in India,” said Pardeshi.
Bhalup village in Balrampur district of Chhattisgarh got electricity connection for the first time in February this year after the district administration installed solar panels for every family. Chhattisgarh High Court is completely dependent on the solar energy project of CREDA for its power needs.
Raipur is also emerging as an example for other towns and cities in application of solar power. Schools and primary health care centres are running fully on solar power. Hospitals, that earlier had to conduct deliveries and critical surgeries under candlelight, and were unable to stock vaccines under suitably low temperatures, are now making use of sun power.
In fact, a forensic laboratory is coming up in Raipur that will run on solar power only. “Chhattisgarh is also smart enough to have controlled power thefts considerably. All our systems are computerenabled and our city grids have been smartened up with SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) systems to prevent electricity theft at any point,” said Pardeshi. Moreover, Chhattisgarh Government has been given a target of creating 2000 ‘Suryamitras’ by the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy who could be trained for seeking employment in the solar energy sector during the next five years, officials informed.
Source: indiatoday.in
